Axios

A former cabinet minister from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party has announced that he's breaking away to challenge Netanyahu in Israel's next election.

Why it matters: The formation of a new right-wing party by Gideon Saar — a former education and interior minister under Netanyahu who challenged him for the Likud leadership last year — is bad news for Netanyahu with an election looming early next year.

A suspected Chinese intelligence operative developed extensive ties with local and national politicians, including a U.S. congressman, in what U.S. officials believe was a political intelligence operation run by China’s main civilian spy agency between 2011 and 2015, Axios found in a yearlong investigation.

Why it matters: The alleged operation offers a rare window into how Beijing has tried to gain access to and influence U.S. political circles.

U.K. medical teams began administering Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine doses on Tuesday, with people aged 80 and older the first to be inoculated.

The big picture: The U.K. last week became the first Western nation to give emergency approval for a COVID-19 vaccine. Margaret Keenan, 90, was the world's first person to get a fully tested, clinically authorized COVID-19 vaccine, at a hospital in Coventry, England. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said, "We will look back on today, V-day, as a key moment in our fightback against this terrible disease."

Go deeper: In photos: How the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in 2020

Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of Keenan's vaccination.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that Canada will begin receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from next week.

Driving the news: "The first Canadians will be vaccinated next week if we have approval from Health Canada this week," Trudeau told a briefing confirming that the country will receive up to 249,000 doses of the vaccine by the month's end.

How did a Chinese student active in San Francisco Bay Area politics from 2011 to 2015 become the target of a U.S. counterintelligence investigation? And why did her efforts to connect with local politicians who would later play a role on the national stage raise investigators' alarms?

In this clip from "Axios on HBO," Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Zach Dorfman of the Aspen Institute explain.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand security agencies apologized Tuesday to those affected by last year's shootings at two Christchurch mosques after an inquiry found failings in the lead-up to the terrorist attack.

Why it matters: The attack by a white supremacist was one of the biggest mass killings by a single gunman and the worst in New Zealand's modern history. It prompted governments and tech companies to sign on to an agreement to reduce violent extremist content online after the terrorist broadcast the shootings on Facebook Live.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is off to an awkward start with President-elect Biden. Along with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, he's one of the very few world leaders still declining to recognize Biden’s victory.

Why it matters: López Obrador’s stance may soon be forgotten, but it could foreshadow tensions in a relationship that will be crucial in the coming years as the U.S. and Mexico attempt to contain COVID-19, rebuild their economies and tackle shared challenges like immigration.

India is reviewing the COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and AstraZeneca for emergency use, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: India is home to the Serum Institute, the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world by volume. The country has also reported the most coronavirus cases outside the U.S., and the third-most COVID fatalities globally, per Johns Hopkins University data.

The World Economic Forum announced Monday that it will convene its annual meeting this summer in Singapore instead of the iconic Swiss ski town of Davos "in light of the current situation with regards to COVID-19 cases."

Why it matters: Singapore has earned praise for its success in combatting the coronavirus, reporting 58,260 cases since the start of the pandemic and only 213 over the last month, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Even after sinking by 13% since its March peak and coming off its worst week in a month, the dollar's downward spiral has gone largely unmentioned by central banks. But that could change as the values of many major currencies have strengthened to their highest levels in years against the greenback.

Why it matters: The dollar's decline could add significant challenges to the recovery of export-oriented economies like the eurozone and Japan, which prefer weaker currencies that make their products more attractive to foreign buyers.

The European Union has officially adopted a sanctions regime that would implement travel bans and asset freezes against those found responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, torture, extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses, the leaders of the bloc's 27 countries announced Monday.

Why it matters: The EU is the world’s largest single market area and a leading promoter of democratic values, but has been criticized in the past for its failures to put teeth into its calls for the protection of human rights.

After a request from the Sudanese government, Israel has started lobbying senators and members of Congress to approve a bill that would give Sudan immunity from future lawsuits in the U.S. by victims of terrorism, senior Israeli officials told me.

Why it matters: The immunity bill was part of a trilateral deal between the U.S., Sudan and Israel that included an agreement to begin the process of normalizing ties. Israeli officials are concerned that the normalization process will come to a halt if the deal unravels. The deadline for passing the bill is Dec. 14.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of people in 191 countries and regions since spreading from China in January — killing more than 1.5 million people, infecting more than 66.3 million and disrupting many more lives.

The big picture: Companies and schools around the world have shifted to online work and classes. Many governments have responded with restrictions including lockdowns, social distancing measures and mask mandates.

Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro claimed on Monday his political alliance had achieved "a great victory" in a congressional election boycotted by key parties and dismissed as a "sham" by the U.S. and its allies, per AP.

Why it matters: It means he's regained control of the National Assembly. Juan Guaidó is recognized by over 50 countries as Venezuela’s interim president, but it was his role as assembly president that put him in the line of succession, Axios' Dave Lawler notes. That mandate is due to expire Jan. 5.

Australia's "'black summer" bushfires killed, wounded or displaced 143 million mammals — including over 61,000 koalas, per a report published Monday

Why it matters: Koalas in New South Wales and Queensland were in "rapid decline" before last summer's fires ravaged the states, per a statement from Dermot O'Gorman, CEO of WWF-Australia, which commissioned the research. It's "a deeply disturbing number for a species already in trouble," he added.